Senior living facilities, hotels, resorts and government buildings are required to have a percentage of their rooms accessible to the disabled and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Within ADA, two shower units are defined and described. The two configurations are intended to facilitate the use of shower units by wheel chair bound individuals and to prevent barriers of entry for these individuals and other disabled individuals.
The descriptions for the two ADA units include parameters for threshold clearances from the bathroom floor into the shower unit. ADA allows a 36″×36″ inside dimension shower (Shower A) and a 60″×36″ or 60″×30″ inside dimension shower (Shower B). Shower A is allowed a ½″ height variation from the bathroom floor to the top of the threshold of the shower unit and Shower B is allowed a “flush” installation of the top of the threshold of the shower unit to the bathroom floor.
Shower units must have draft, or slope, in the shower floor from the outside edges through all points to the drain. Industry standard is to provide these shower units with 2 inch thresholds meaning on shower A, a 1½ inch recess is required to meet the threshold code and in shower B, a 2 inch recess is required to meet the threshold code. Site preparation to install a compliant unit requires one of two options: 1) a pit in the site floor must be created where the shower is to be installed; or 2) the bathroom floor must be built up to the corresponding height required to be ADA compliance. Both of these installation procedures are very costly and time consuming to construct. Even if showers are manufactured with lower thresholds, floor manipulation is still necessary.
Standard shower units are manufactured with base reinforcement that allows for ample structure to sustain the user's weight. The space required for this reinforcement does not cause any problems with a standard unit as there is no threshold entry issue. With ADA compliant units, however, the low shower threshold heights do not allow enough space to add reinforcement to the shower floor. The small clearance restricts the insertion of the conventional amount of support materials necessary for reinforcement. Using the standard shower support materials under barrier free shower floors fails to adequately support the shower floor for the end user. As a result, ADA units require special installation.
Conventional techniques place slurry between the construction floor and the shower floor. The application of the slurry is very expensive due to both the materials used and the labor costs. Further, use of the slurry is difficult. During installation, maintaining the draft of the shower floor is difficult with the slurry. Also, maintaining the complete contact between the shower floor and the slurry is difficult. Conventional techniques used to address these problems include bracing the shower floor to confirm the proper draft was maintained. Also, normally 48 hours is the amount of time required for the slurry to cure. Once again, this adds extra cost to the installation of the ADA compliant showers.
Also, the slurry requires a certain temperature level before it can be poured. Typically, slurry cannot be poured when temperatures do not exceed daily levels required for concrete use. This obviously delays jobsite progress and compliance with scheduled completion dates. Frequently, proper draft is not maintained in the shower floor when the slurry is poured. This creates water accumulation in the shower floor and can even lead to directing water to the bathroom floor, thereby creating slip hazards for the end user and caregivers.
Thus, there is seen in the art a need for self sustaining base that is used with a shower stall.